When next you hear of me it will be with one of my
crowns on my head.
CHARLES R.'
Therewith was a brief note from Eustace himself:--
'Sweet Meg--Be not terrified at what they tell you of me. I have been
preserved by a miracle in the miserable destruction of our armament and our
noble leader. Would that my life could have gone for his! They take such a
passing ailment as I have often before shaken off for more than it is worth,
but I will write more from shipboard. Time presses at present. With my
loving and dutiful greetings to my mother, and all love to my sister,
'Thine,
'E. WALWYN AND RIBAUMONT.'
Mr. Probyn told us more, and very sad it was, though still we had
cause for joy. When Montrose's little troop was defeated and broken
up at the Pass of Invercharron my brother had fled with the Marquis,
and had shared his wanderings in Ross-shire for some days; but, as
might only too surely have been expected, the exposure brought back
his former illness, and he was obliged to take shelter in the cabin
of a poor old Scotchwoman. She--blessings be on her head!--was
faithful and compassionate, and would not deliver him up to his
enemies, and thus his sickness preserved him from being taken with
his leader by the wretched Macleod of Assynt.
Just as he grew a little better her son, who was a pedlar, arrived at
the hut.
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